June 30, 2015

Just Do It

[Recently,] I taught a
Celebrate Kids webinar about fostering kids’ love for literature. I’m
passionate about the topic because I know – from research, anecdotal evidence,
and my own personal experience – that a love for reading is, perhaps, the most
significant lifelong learning tool we can give our kids. Obviously, engaging
children in hands-on experiences is also vital for real learning, and we need
to strive to provide as much of that as possible. However, few have the time or
resources to travel the world or even the country, and we obviously can’t
travel through time. But through reading – by choosing to actively engage in literature
and other meaningful texts – kids can go anywhere they’d like via their
imaginations.

Of course, they have
to want to engage. And, sadly, far too many children and teens have no desire
to do so.

The reasons for that
are myriad and beyond the scope of this piece. But we can’t let current
circumstances cause us to consign our kids to a life of de facto creative and cultural illiteracy. So why not use this
summer to rekindle (or spark for the first time) your children’s desire to
devour books?

A couple of ideas to
get you going:

·If you don’t currently read aloud to your kids, start. Daily. Yes, even with those who are
more than capable of reading on their own. Too often we give up on reading
aloud with older kids, but that’s a mistake; for their long-term benefit, we
should actually be engaging in family read-alouds every day until the youngest
child leaves the home. So find a book that’s likely to appeal to most of your
children – a classic like Charlotte’s Web,
Huckleberry Finn, or Little House on the Prairie – and just
begin. Establish a set family read-aloud time – early in the morning, over
lunch or dinner, or before your nighttime routine – and stick to it. Read just
a chapter a day, and then talk about it together for a few minutes. When you
finish one book, have another ready to go.

·Institute a daily Family Read-a-Thon – either first thing after breakfast or,
perhaps, right after lunch when little ones nap and you want your older kids
out of the strongest afternoon heat. Simply gather in the living room for 30 to
60 minutes, each family member with his or her own book – Mom included – and
read silently surrounded by each other. Early readers can bring a pile of
picture books to the couch and quietly peruse several while each established
reader enjoys a chapter or two in a book of personal interest. In the process,
you’ll be developing in your kids a crucial habit of mind: the ability to
choose quiet, unplugged activity. And – especially by participating rather than
just assigning the task to your kids while you go off and scroll Facebook –
you’ll communicate and model the value of reading.

What else can you do
to foster your kids’ love of good books? Brainstorm ideas with your spouse and
children, and then – to quote the “famous sage” we call Nike – pick something
and just do it.

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